As society continues to advance, media is available in ever-changing formats. For example, services exist that provide media, including entire movies, television shows, music albums, individual songs, audio books on tape, books and magazines, and even recorded blogs in an electronic format without the transfer of a recordable media, such as on a CD or DVD, from a vendor to consumer. Similarly, media playback devices such as portable DVD and CD players, handheld media devices for playing music and video, handheld computers, portable telephones, and other electronic devices allow individuals to carry virtually any media to virtually anywhere. Because of the proliferation of media formats and availability, consumers desire media more quickly and in a variety of formats to suit their individual preferences. Because such content is stored digitally, it can be transferred using many types of electronic networks. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,875,110, 4,412,292, 5,848,398, 6,397,189, 6,381,575, 4,674,055, 5,445,295, 5,734,719, 6,286,029, 6,799,165, 6,655,580, 6,330,490, 6,662,080, 6,535,791, 6,711,464, 5,237,157, 6,654,757, 5,794,217, and 6,748,539. Both private and public electronic networks, including the internet, are frequently used to transfer the digital content.
Often the digital content is transferred electronically so that it can be sold to a user who is not located where the digital content is originally stored. The digital content can be sold for a variety of purposes, including education, entertainment, research, or other purposes. The digital content may be sold in any number of technological formats known in the art that permit storage and retrieval of the digital data, including floppy discs, compact discs (CDs) of several varieties; video discs of several varieties, including digital video discs (DVDs); magnetic storage devices using a variety of forms and technologies; and solid state devices of several varieties.
Most digital content sales have been to users of computers that are connected to each other via electronic networks of various types, e.g., the internet. However users are not always located at such a computer when they desire to purchase the digital content, or they have a computer but it is not connected to such a network. Consequently, sales (including rentals) of digital content have begun using devices in remote locations, including stand-alone devices (such as vending machine s) in retail or other high-traffic areas. The stand-alone devices may be attended or unattended.
Traditional vending machines are also used as stand-alone devices. Vending machines typically provide physical products, usually food and beverage products, in convenient locations where such products would be in demand but wouldn't be an appropriate or profitable location for a traditional store. However, traditional vending machines have often been limited to just vending physical products.